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By: Julia Wilkinson

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You may already be shipping some orders to other countries via sales on eBay's or Amazon's US sites, or other US marketplaces with global reach. But what about listing your inventory directly on international marketplace sites in those countries? Could your products be missing out on significant sales because you are not listed where these international buyers live?

I'm wondering how many of you sell products that you think have global appeal, and do you think you would sell more if you listed your items directly on these marketplaces? Aside from establishing there is demand for your products in a certain marketplace, there are suddenly other business concerns to think about, such as any international product restrictions, international tax issues, and whether you'll need to translate your products' descriptions into, say, German.

In their Global Selling with Amazon Guide, Amazon points out that "many product listings are already translated into other languages," and you can use the listings tool to search the Amazon catalog to see if your product is already listed in the desired language. If it is not, however, you do need to translate the listing yourself. This may mean hiring a translator, or enlisting the aid of a multilingual friend; Google Translate is known to produce some translations that, while they may be helpful, they can also be awkward and even funny.

How about you? Do you plan to dip your toe in the waters of foreign seas? Or are you already listing on international marketplaces now, and what has your experience been? What have your biggest barriers been? Post a comment here!

That's interesting! We just posted slides from a presentation we gave at SCOE 2012 on International Expansion.

Check them out on SlideShare:

by: Tula

Tue Nov 6 12:50:00 2012

I already sell a lot internationally, but would probably see some benefit listing in other countries directly. I sell a lot to other English-language sites already, but have a few niche items that might do well in other countries. What I'd like most to see is ebay helping sellers by posting listings in China, but they only seem to be interested in the other direction of China selling to us and not the other way around. It's kind of irritating, given the large population there. It offers a lot of potential customers, but ebay just doesn't seem interested in helping us tap into it.

But this is eBay - where nothing goes right.

How can you sell items overseas when eBay punnishes you when you do?

I've got first hand knowledge of ebay's lies and general evilness about it - but the fact that eBay says one thing and does another doesnt suprise me any longer (It would be abit suprising if a girl blinded ME with science!)

I like to sell all over the world.But ebay has made it harder to get international visibilty.

I like to sell all over the world.But ebay has made it harder to get international visibility.Ebid.net has many international sites that you can list on just by putting a tick in your listing.But of course it all depends on the shipping cost of what you are selling.

Would Listing on International Marketplaces Help Your Sales?

by: Whizbanggvl

Wed Nov 7 08:45:23 2012

My International sales are a very large percentage of my transactions on Ebay.

I typically just list on Ebay.com with the International Options set.

I have used both the UK Visibility option ($.40 fee) and direct listings on International Sites.

I have not found the extra cost to be an effective use of my investment.

My listing appear in the UK without the option. My items are also widely seen on various International sites.

I might add that the key factor, at least for me, is that Ebay.com is the largest marketplace within the system. International buyers look here for products. All I have to do is make it available to them.

I ship free domestically and at calculated cost for International. Those buyers appear quite comfortable with shipping fees.

In short, I've sold worldwide with no issues. I am happy.

I have quit selling internationally completely. I used to call the rest of the world the 51st state as it was just about that percentage of my business. I used to enjoy the communications with others internationally and providing items they wanted. It was fun and made money and friends but the incidence of fraud forced me to quit all international selling. With no way to cost effectively track shipments the seller always looses. I started to see a lot of orders where the buyer waited 2 to 5 days then said the purchase was unauthorized and Pay Pal always took the money from me. Sad but that is the world we live in.

Outside eBay/Amazon, where is that International site?

I don't how works for Amazon, but any seller that sell International and his/her default shipping method is the USPS Int. 1rst Class. After the new increase of the USPS in January 2013. Everything will be different.

Would Listing on International Marketplaces Help Your Sales?

by: iheartjacksparrow

Wed Nov 7 10:01:19 2012

Like "rstpete" above, I used to get a huge number of international sales through eBay. But it seems as though eBay has turned all buyers, no matter where they are located, into scammers, so now any buyer outside the U.S. must agree to pay for Registered Mail or Express Mail since those are the only shipping methods that I can track.

Would Listing on International Marketplaces Help Your Sales?

by: RAOTFLMAO

Wed Nov 7 10:40:48 2012

Approx. 85% of my sales are international. If it were not for my international customers I would be pushing carts at Walmart. The site? My own website. It takes time to get a web presence overseas but it can be done (unless you are selling .99 widjets that come out of China for .09). I have very little trouble about sales not going through since I have stopped taking paypal. I will only take it if it is a repeat customer that has used it with me before.

Would Listing on International Marketplaces Help Your Sales?

by: cayenna

Wed Nov 7 12:10:43 2012

I quit selling most of my items Internationally on eBay because this year for the first time; most would come back and say they didn't get their item, even though it cleared 100% within the US. Until they invent some kind of International tracking I no longer have a desire to get ripped off.

Would Listing on International Marketplaces Help Your Sales?

by: Tiffee Jasso

Wed Nov 7 13:01:11 2012

Maybe the reason Ebay is not interested in expanding sales in China is that the Chinese mail is not stable. I had 2 sales (small items)to China and neither item got to the buyer. I had to refund both sales. Ebay is supposedly going to make an International Hub where you ship the item to a U.S. location and then it is shipped to its International destination. The seller is only responsible for the U.S. destination. In that case I will ship anywhere in World, as long as I am not going to be held responsible for the "I didn"t get it" claims.

Would Listing on International Marketplaces Help Your Sales?

by: cayenna

Wed Nov 7 13:03:25 2012

Thank you Tiffee Jasso for your comment! I will check it out.

With ecrater giving us the ability to have Uk and Aus stores, my international sales picked up. Some months 20-25% of my sales are international. I have sent items to lots of countries and have only had trouble a few times which made me decline to take orders from Italy and Spain now, along with most of the third world countries that don't have safe mail systems. What is interesting is that some of what I list on Amazon for some reason isn't eligible for international shipping. To be able to sell something to someone that found what she wanted on Amazon but couldn't buy it in the UK, I had to write to her through Amazon's message system in such a way that she could find my ecrater store to buy it from there. I would just as soon sell internationally through Amazon, but if they don't allow it for some items (same kind of stuff that I sell all the time through Ecrater UK) you do what you have to to keep a sale. Perhaps if Amazon is wanting more of an international sales platform this product category will also open up to international sales as well.

Would Listing on International Marketplaces Help Your Sales?

by: Dragonlord

Wed Nov 7 16:49:13 2012

We have 50% of our sales that are international and the web site is my own just as ROATFLMAO mentioned above. It takes a lot of time and effort but it pays off in the end with the amount of dollars coming in from international buyers. We have customers in England, France and other European countries, plus Austrailia, Japan, Russia, and a lot of South American countries. Shipping has never been a problem and we have only lost one shipment in the past 10 years. The best thing we ever did was to drop Fleece-Bay and do it ourselves. There is a better life out there without Ebay and all of their BS.

Would Listing on International Marketplaces Help Your Sales?

by: mindelec

Thu Nov 8 01:51:54 2012

i'd happily sell internationally on amazon IF they gave me enough of a shipping allotment, their 2lb rate might barely cover it, but if the book weighs over that i am screwed.

I've always sold Worldwide on eBay. I have sold to 25 countries so far, mostly to UK, Canada and Australia, recently to the Ukraine. Amazon denies me selling on their site, why I have NO idea. I sell Master hand carved animal totem pendants for the last 8 years. I am on Etsy, sold nothing.

Would Listing on International Marketplaces Help Your Sales?

by: Cassie

Mon Nov 12 04:21:30 2012

Over 12 years ago, I worked for a corporate firm that manufactured and shipped internationally. I would say dealing with some countries you will get scammed very bad.

1)Warning about China and some countries listing your business name/business logo they will register it in your country and charge you a fee to using your own business name - it's no secret that Apple was paying China royalties using their own trademark.Fact there is trademark, copyright investment companies and that is the money that President Obama is making off of China he is getting a share of corporations such as Burger King or etc using their own name branding in China..

2)customs in some countries are very corrupt it's key you have a strong Shipper with on-site customs agent. Even if you do unless your a large volume shipper your shipper or distributing partner will not protect you even a large corporation expects a loss through black markets and extortion tactics with corrupt overseas custom agents at the level of 15% to 30% pending the volume of sales you do with a particular shipping agent or distributor. What most don't know is for large global corporations guarantee 100% delivery system we had to set up our own branch distribution offices that was full Distribution hub: service Sales,Service, and Repairs that hired or employed people in that economy you offer them jobs and if sales made in their country they were entitled to commissions on those sales as part of their economies gross sales reports.. So, be prepared they scam you for a reason every one wants their cut it's the cost of doing business overseas! If you have packages that reported not the product you shipped customs has swapped it!!!

Yes, I went abroad outsource that corporation and let me tell you have to be a different animal to deal in global corporate business had body guards!It was Eastern Block Europe after the fall of Communism the Russian Mofia real and yes some police or security check points years ago machine gun in face - scream papers. Yeah, Amazon and Ebay make it sound simple but there is always the greater risk with greater opportunity.

Me I won't personally do it unless I'm at the level of an 8 digit income seller have the resources to protect myself but at that level I say business sold and retiring! I left large corporations & global corporations for a reason hated the politics and hated the corruption especially had to deal with daily.

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